RE: (TFT) On the subject of quickness/defense

["Gadda, Charles A" <charles.a.gadda@lmco.com>]

>>>>>>>Agreed, the funny thing is that talent won 1st place in Interplay 8
for a
new talent.  No wonder it was the last Interplay.  I don't ever think we
will come to any full agreement on the subject of parrying and defense as we
all have our own opinions.  But, a big BUT,  keep those opinions coming
because I know that I have dumped some of my house rules because of them.
Examples being Morris' Character creation point system, Ty's Expert Swordman
talent, Brewer's adjST, and the negative adjDX parry system that has been
written up on the list by many people.<<<<<<<<<<<<

Actually, in spite of my criticism, I did like the Defensive Quickness - but
only at the first level. It was the subsequent levels that alarmed me. To my
view, this was a nice adjunct to the Warrior/Veteran/(Campaigner) talents,
which I have as IQ 9 talents that simply reflect a combination of grunt
level experience and to a lesser extent ability to ignore pain and minor
injuries. Thus, you aren't so much stopping 3 hits like maille armour,
rather, you're doing a combination of sort of "falling back" or twisting
with the blow (thus reducing the impact energy and redirecting at least some
of it) and for the rest simply blocking out the pain and shock factor (which
is abstracted into the damage rolls, as I recall).  Its not very
intellectual, just a product of the "School of Hard Knocks" and the dictim:
"That which does not kill you makes you stronger" - hence the IQ 9 level and
the 2 or 3 points needed to "learn". The DQ, on the other hand, represents
as I stated a state of high speed and concentration which allows you to
anticipate your adversary's attack and move more or less completely out of
the way. Combined, these talents make for a VERY powerful warrior, yet not
so powerful as to be absurdly invincible. In other words, a "Spear Carrier"
is very much outclassed, but still has a slight chance - he could reasonably
get a hit on a charge attack and do some noticeable harm. And going against
several spear carriers has a certain element of risk - unlike D&D where
you're average 10th level fighter can wade into an orc hoard naked with his
bare hands and probably win (depending on exact ST, DX and hit points, but
...). In other words, a group of 4-6 beginning characters with a balance of
abilities and weapons might, depending on the tactical situation and
adroitness of tactics, have a fair chance (~25%, depending on the dice) of
taking down the Zen Godzilla described above - something that in practical
terms would ***never*** happen in D&D.

With these rules (combined with mine and the other fellow's ideas on
allowing a slight survivability at negative ST) you end up with characters
who have a decent chance of survival, in terms of not being killed trivially
by some snot nosed hobgoblin with a dagger (in open melee - I'm not
considering the sneaky hobgoblin backstabbing the blissfully unaware
character), and are definately great, even legendary warriors capable of
extraordinary but plausible feats. Not supermen, but definately a cut above.
And that I find reasonable and fun.


=====
Post to the entire list by writing to tft@brainiac.com.
Unsubscribe by mailing to majordomo@brainiac.com with the message body
"unsubscribe tft"